Fort McRae was a

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

post, established in 1863, then a

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

post from 1866 and closed in 1876, in what is now

Sierra County, New Mexico Sierra County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 11,576. Its county seat is Truth or Consequences. Geography According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of ...

. The post was named for

Alexander McRae (1829–1862) Alexander McRae (1829–1862) was a U.S. Army officer from North Carolina, who served on the antebellum frontiers in Texas and New Mexico, and fought in the Union Army, being killed in the Battle of Valverde. Early life and career Alexander McRae w ...

a slain hero of the 1862

Battle of Valverde The Battle of Valverde, also known as the Battle of Valverde Ford, was fought from February 20 to 21, 1862, near the town of Val Verde at a ford of the Rio Grande in Union-held New Mexico Territory, in what is today the state of New Mexico. I ...

. The site of Fort McRae is located on the east bank of the

Elephant Butte Reservoir Elephant Butte Reservoir is a reservoir on the southern part of the Rio Grande in the U.S. state of New Mexico, north of Truth or Consequences. The reservoir is the 84th largest man-made lake in the United States and the largest in New Mexico by ...

in the general area of

Elephant Butte, New Mexico Elephant Butte is a city in Sierra County, New Mexico, United States, located near Elephant Butte Reservoir and Elephant Butte Lake State Park. The population was 1,431 at the time of the 2010 census. History Elephant Butte was named from E ...

within McRae Canyon. A area at the site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 2005. In National Park Service sources its precise location was .

History

Union Army

Fort McRae was first established by California Volunteers of the

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

on April 3, 1863. It was located east of the Rio Grande on the south side of Canyon del Muerto, (now known as McRae Canyon), at an elevation of in the southern

Fra Cristobal Range The Fra Cristobal Range, (Fra Cristóbal Range) is a 17 mi (27 km) long, mountain range in central-north Sierra County, New Mexico. Its northern extreme above Fra Cristoblal Mountain extends into Socorro County. The range borders the ...

, 3 miles northeast of Elephant Butte, in

. It was located nearby to the west of the Ojo del Muerto, a spring in the Canyon del Muerto, one of the few reliable water sources along the route of the Jornada del Muerto.Wilson, John P., Between the River and the Mountains: A History of Early Settlement in Sierra County, New Mexico, Report #40, John P. Wilson, Las Cruces, New Mexico, August 1985
/ref> Fort McRae was established to protect the area of new settlements and road on the west bank of the

Rio Grande Valley The Lower Rio Grande Valley ( es, Valle del Río Grande), commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley or locally as the Valley or RGV, is a region spanning the border of Texas and Mexico located in a floodplain of the Rio Grande near its mouth. Th ...

and in the road across the Jornada del Muerto from Navaho and Apache raiders. It also blocked the Apache and Navajo from using the Canyon del Muerto gap through the Fra Cristobal Range and also from using the Ojo del Muerto spring. The post was originally founded by California Volunteers of the

in 1863 to the protect settlements of

Alamosa Alamosa is a home rule municipality and the county seat of Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 9,806 at the 2020 United States Census. The city is the commercial center of the San Luis Valley in south-central Colora ...

and Canada Alamosa, and the travelers on the Fort Craig - Fort Thorn Wagon Road and Jornada del Muerto from Apache raids. Later settlements of Alamocita, Plaza del Rio Palomas, in 1867 and

Cuchillo Negro Baishan, Spanish name Cuchillo Negro (Black Knife) (c. 1796 – May 24, 1857), was a Tchihende ( Mimbres) Apache chieftain, of the Warm Springs Apache Band during the 1830s to 1850s. Apache war-leader and chief Baishan ("Knife"), son of the ...

in 1871, were added to the Fort's protection duties. The Volunteers during their time at Ft. McRae built a

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

with names of soldiers in the post cemetery, that was enclosed within a stone wall.Rio Grande Republican, Dec. 22, 1880, p.1 The Volunteers manned it until they were relieved by soldiers of the regular U.S. Army during the aftermath of the

in 1866.

U. S. Army

Fort McRae was the only outpost within a radius of , except for the other U.S. Army forts;

Fort Craig Fort Craig was a U.S. Army fort located along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the Rio Grande in Socorro County, New Mexico. The Fort Craig site was approximately 1,050 feet east-west by 600 feet north-so ...

which was away to the north and Fort Selden which was 60 miles away to the south. In 1867, Alamocita, a small New Mexican town was established on the east bank about six miles up the Rio Grande from the fort, some from Alamosa, three miles away on the west bank that had been destroyed by the flooding earlier that same year. That year too, the Plaza del Rio Palomas, later more commonly called Las Palomas, was founded twenty miles down river from the fort on the west bank, at the confluence of Palomas Creek with the Rio Grande. The population thought it easier to defend from Apache attacks, and easier to reinforce from Fort McRae, than their former home in Alamosa. Between 1868 and 1871,

was settled by pioneering New Mexican farmers from Alamosita. After a peace was made Fort McRae provided the garrison at the Apache reservation at Ojo Caliente on the upper Cañada Alamosa. In October 1876, the fort was decommissioned and abandoned, the garrison withdrawn and their responsibilities taken over by Fort Craig.

The Site Today

The site today, partially submerged at times of high water in the reservoir, in recent years has been exposed by the lower water. It has some foundations and other traces of the fort on the south side of McRae Canyon.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places American Civil War forts Forts in New Mexico Military installations established in 1863 1863 establishments in New Mexico Territory Military installations closed in 1876 Closed installations of the United States Army History of Sierra County, New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties Ruins in the United States 1876 disestablishments in the United States 1870s disestablishments in New Mexico Territory National Register of Historic Places in Sierra County, New Mexico